Published 5:00 pm, Saturday, February 1, 2014

As Midlanders stock their homes with beer, nachos and chicken wings in preparation for Super Bowl parties, local pizza joints are also gearing up for the big game.

Several local business owners and managers said their stores will be slammed today for the Super Bowl.

“For pizza, it’s the busiest day of the year,” said Gabriel Solis, owner of Brianna’s Pizza, located at 4309 W. Illinois Ave.

On a normal Sunday, Solis said he has about five employees working inside the store and between three and five drivers available to deliver the pizzas. But on Super Bowl Sunday, he’s going to double his staff to keep up with the increased demand.

This year will be the store’s fourth time serving Midlanders pizza on Super Bowl Sunday and Solis said he’s learned a lot from working during the big game in the past.

“It’s higher on the sales, but it depends on the weather too,” he said. “If the weather is nice, most people will barbecue.”

But because temperatures are forecasted to be near freezing across the Permian Basin this year, Solis said he expects even more people will want to serve pizzas at their Super Bowl parties.

He expects that in just two hours his store will make double what it usually does on a typical Sunday.

The Super Bowl is also the busiest day of the year for local Domino’s pizza stores, said Jim Gerety, a Domino’s franchisee who owns a dozen locations throughout the Midland-Odessa area.

The pizza chain did really well last year, he said, but Gerety is expecting his stores will do even better this year.

“There’s a lot of excitement about the Seahawks and Broncos being in the Super Bowl this year,” Gerety said. “Bronco fans are all over the country; we just seem to have quite a few of them here.”

Gerety predicts his stores will make anywhere from 30 to 50 percent more today, compared to an average Sunday.

Diana Wang, owner of MD Pizza Factory at 4706 N. Midkiff Road, said she expects to sell nearly twice as many pizzas as she would on an average Sunday.

Most of her customers order a pizza or two on a traditional day, but the orders start to pile up on Super Bowl Sunday, she said. Many of the orders are for four or five pizzas, she said.

The store doesn’t open until 4 p.m. on Sundays. So Wang expected many of her regular customers to place orders Saturday so they’re ready in time for kickoff.

But once the game starts 5:25 p.m., Wang said she expects almost all business to stop suddenly.

“The whole business is dead once the game starts,” she said. “You cannot see cars on the street. It’s kind of weird.”

The Pizza Hut at 427 Andrews Highway, however, will most likely stay busy throughout the entire game, according to general manager Susan Clark.

Clark said she thinks that because her store belongs to a well-known chain, it’s going to stay much busier than some of the other local stores.

She predicted the store will see 30 to 40 percent more business today compared to any other Sunday. To prepare, every employee will be working, she said.

“Even I have to work this Sunday so I can help them out with all the phone calls we're going to get,” Clark said.

The wait times, as a result, will be higher than normal, she said. Clark said she hopes to get her customers their pizza within an hour, but if the store is as busy as it was last year, people will be waiting more than an hour for their pizza delivery.

Torino’s Pizza Bar, located at 3303 N. Midkiff Road, is also expecting more people to order pizzas for the Super Bowl, according to Teresa Roumell, a manager at the bar.

But Roumell said she expects more people will purchase chicken wings to take home for their Super Bowl parties.

“We do have a lot more carry-out,” Roumell said. “We sell a lot of pizza. We sell a lot of wings, too. For the Super Bowl, it’s usually the wings that sell.”

Not everyone in Midland, however, will be at home hosting Super Bowl parties. Roumell said she’s anticipating “a full house” at her bar during the game.

“Most of the major sporting events are pretty crowded,” she said.

Torino’s also showed the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed-martial arts matches Saturday, which means they had to stock up, Roumell said.

Even though Triple Threat Sports Bar and Grill, located at 12 Meta Drive, won’t be serving pizza to its customers today, it anticipated there will be a full house.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to be pretty busy,” said Wensda Serfass, the bar’s co-owner. “We just stocked up on beer, food and liquor.”

Serfass said she thinks the bar will be filled as much as it would be if there was a Texas team playing in a big game.

“It’ll be like if the Rangers went to the play-offs,” she said. “It’s just a big day. Who doesn’t love the Super Bowl?”